


Circumventing Authority

by emjam



Series: lgbtq+ gravity falls [5]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Genderqueer Character, Genderqueer Mabel Pines, Neopronouns, Sibling Bonding, Trans Dipper Pines, Transphobia, binding, grunkles to the rescue, some light magic thrown in, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-28
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21589159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emjam/pseuds/emjam
Summary: “Where'd you get your binder?”“Not now, Mabel, I'm busy.” Dipper scratches out a sentence of his English essay, then actually hears what Mabel said. He puts his pencil down and turns in his swivel chair to where Mabel is standing at the doorway. “Wait, you want a binder?”(Mabel wants a binder. The twins' parents aren't very supportive.)
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines
Series: lgbtq+ gravity falls [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/582943
Comments: 28
Kudos: 351





	Circumventing Authority

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place about a year or two after the last installment - both twins are out to their parents. this can probably be read as a standalone but the former parts are deffo in the same universe.
> 
> warning: this has SLIGHT angst - the twins' parents support dipper being trans, but not mabel, since ae is nonbinary and that concept is harder for them to grasp or even support. they basically think ae is messing around and will grow out of it. there's references to a conversation like that in here, but not the conversation itself.
> 
> safe reading and enjoy!

“Where'd you get your binder?”

“Not now, Mabel, I'm busy.” Dipper scratches out a sentence of his English essay, then actually hears what Mabel said. He puts his pencil down and turns in his swivel chair to where Mabel is standing at the doorway. “Wait, you want a binder?”

Ae nods, then pauses. “Well, okay, I mean, I'm not sure if I’ll actually like it or not, buuut I keep thinking about it! And I figured the best way to stop obsessing over it was to actually get one.”

“Oh! Well, okay, um, I got mine from this one website…” He swivels back to his desk, opens his laptop, and types in _gc2b.co_. The home page pops up, and he rests the mouse over the _shop by collection_ tab. “And there you have it, that’s pretty much their selection.”

Mabel clamors over and steals the mouse, scrolling through the different collections.

“Aw, but these are so boring! The least boring color they have is olive green, which… bleh.”

“Hey! I happen to like my green very much, thanks. Wait, what are you doing?”

His sibling leans over, clicks the back button to get back to Google, searches _patterned binders,_ backspaces, and retypes it as _patterned chest binders_. Saves some confusion here. The first result is _shapeshifters.co_.

“Score!” Mabel exclaims, and clicks the link.

The website features tons of designs and fabrics. “Whoa, I've never seen binders like these before,” Dipper says. He turns to look at his sibling. Ae has stars in aer eyes.

“Oh my gosh! Fish scale binder! Aw, but that reminds me too much of Mermando. Maybe unicorn barf? Nah, brings up bad memories.” Ae scrolls a bit further, then suddenly becomes aware of aerself. “Oh, sorry Dipper! I totally just stole your laptop.” Ae pulls aer hands from the keyboard.

“Nah, it’s fine,” he says. Usually he would be annoyed if Mabel came in and usurped his computer, but not now. Not for this. He lifts the laptop and hands it to aer. “You can keep using it in here if you want, just, uh, keep it down. I'm writing an essay.” Ae takes it, chirps out aer thanks, and takes a seat on his bed, eagerly looking through the website. He picks his pencil back up and tries not to worry.

He’d rather not risk their parents finding out that Mabel’s looking into this. They more or less became okay with him being trans, but nonbinary people are a whole other thing. Their parents basically ignore that Mabel came out to them. Ae has patches on aer bags and jackets, and more than one relevant t-shirt - Dipper’s favorite one has to be “my gender is glitter” - but none of these clue their parents in. They seem more intent on subtly diverting their attention, except to make a vague and unwelcome comment now and again. Usually it’s about how people should be happy with one gender or the other.

So if they find out, it might just make things more complicated and difficult for Mabel.

Maybe they should just circumvent their parents altogether, he thinks.

* * *

“I think I should get this one.”

Dipper shakes himself out of the timeless fog of intense essay-writing. “Which one?”

His sibling points to the Synergy binder. It’s hot pink and sparkly, and very much aer style. Admittedly, it’s almost exactly the same as the Unicorn Barf style, but he can understand Mabel’s aversion to that.

“Nice.”

“Right? I’m gonna go ask our parents for it. I mean, our birthday _is_ coming up.” Ae is full of pent-up excitement, raring to go.

“Well, it’s only the first of August,” Dipper starts, but he knows the real reason he’s worried about this. He sighs. “...and wouldn’t it be better if, maybe, we asked our great uncles for it or something? I don’t know how our parents would feel…”

“Don’t be silly! Who couldn’t resist this smile?” Ae grins, aer braces decorated with rainbow elastics. “Besides, it’s basically twin rules that you can’t get one twin something and then deny it to the other one. They can’t say no to me for _that_ much longer,” ae laughs, then ae returns his laptop and leaves.

Dipper wants to tell aer that he doesn’t want them to hurt aer, but he doesn’t want to be overprotective. It’s aer choice after all, and ae’s always been persistent in the face of their parents’ resistance. So he lets aer go, but not without a twinge of anxiety in his gut.

* * *

Dipper pops his head into his sibling’s room an hour later to check in. “Hey, how’d it - oh, Mabel...”

Ae sits on aer bed, disappointment weighing down aer shoulders as ae half-heartedly pushes a few pieces of macaroni around on a sheet of cardboard. “I’m trying to make a macaroni mosaic of my feelings, but it’s not _working._ ” Ae picks up the half-full tube of glitter glue, then sets it down indecisively. Dipper shuts the door behind him, and that's when Mabel deflates. “Why isn’t it _working_ , Dipper?”

“The macaroni?”

“No, _them._ ” Ae mutters dejectedly. Ae sniffles and wipes her nose on her sleeve.

“What did they say?”

“That I'm too young to know what I’m talking about. That I might just be confused and have a problem with my body…”

“What? That's ridiculous!” Dipper throws his hands in the air. “They didn’t even say that to me!”

“Well, they think you exist.” Ae shakes aer head. “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to sound like a jerk, I meant -”

“No, no, it’s okay, it’s true. They shouldn’t be thinking like that, but they do.”

“Maybe they just need more time. Maybe if I just explain it to them one more time…”

It absolutely sucks to see Mabel like this. Dipper sags. “It’s been a _year_ , Mabel.” Ae looks down. “I think they’ve known long enough to have at least a basic understanding. They just… don’t want to believe.”

“I know. Like they know me more than I do.”

“Yeah.”

“They think I’m copying you,” Mabel sniffs.

“Okay, that’s just stupid. You’re _not_ copying me, that’s not how any of this works.”

“I- yeah. I-I know my whole gender thing is a little out there, and I know I’m really silly about it -” Dipper is reminded of the aforementioned glitter gender shirt - “but that’s just who I am! I goof off a lot but that doesn’t mean it’s a game or something. I shouldn’t be all serious-y Mabel to be treated like I can make my own decisions. I’m not you, I’m me! I’m just trying to be me.”

“I know.” Dipper can’t resist hugging aer. “I know you’re you, Mabel.”

“Me too,” ae murmurs. “You’re you, a cool dude, and I’m me, a neat genderqueer rainbow. Just like Grunkle Stan is an awesome punching machine and Grunkle Ford is a smart think-y machine. And they’re both unique and great.” Ae moves the sad craft off of aer lap and finally hugs him back. “So why do people compare us when we’re different people? It hurts, Dipper.”

“I know. I'm sorry. I have an idea, though.”

Ae sniffs again. “What is it?”

And before ae knows it, they both end up fidgeting on the other line of a video Skype call to their grunkles, and Dipper is opening with, “Grunkle Stan, you like to circumvent authority, right?”

“Oh, whenever possible!” Stan self-assuredly responds, leaning back in his chair. The boat cabin behind him is gently lit, creating a cozy atmosphere.

Beside Stan, Ford speaks a moment later, appearing to have given considerable thought to his answer. “Well, it depends, really.”

The twins take both as positives. “Great,” Dipper continues, “because, um…” he turns to Mabel with the hope that ae can explain better.

“Our parents are being _really_ silly about my whole gender thing and they’re saying I'm not real and they think I’m just trying to copy Dipper and they won’t buy me this really cool binder. Could you guys maybe send it to me for my birthday, or?”

The connection goes choppy for a moment, then readjusts itself, aer hopeful request finally trickling in through the grunkles’ laptop speakers. Despite Fiddleford’s best efforts at creating a high-powered Skyping machine that withstands the Grunkles’ frequent travel, the laptop’s connection can still be questionable some days. Stan finally hears the message, which is evident by the anger that contorts his face. “I'm gonna hafta have a word with your parents. That’s bull...crap. We’ll get you anything you need, pumpkin.”

“I agree with Stan,” Ford adds. “There is no reason for them to think you’re trying to be like Dipper. You’re you!”

“Thanks, you guys,” Mabel smiles softly.

“And we can definitely slip another gift in with our monthly package,” Ford says. “Maybe I could even make it invisible if I use the right crystals. Y’know, if they decide to snoop.”

Stan chuckles. “Hey, that idea’s not half-bad. Just send us the link, don’t worry about the price.”

When the call ends, it leaves a new warmth in Mabel’s chest, and ae thanks Dipper over and over again for thinking of it. Ae practically vibrates with excitement in the coming days, but aer parents can’t pry a reason from either of their children.

Almost a month passes, and then the package that Ford and Stan send every month arrives at their doorstep - birthday edition.

“Mabel! Dipper! Your package came!”

Mabel and Dipper excitedly clamor into the living room and bring the package into Dipper’s room, shouting a “thanks” behind them.

They unwrap the plain blue wrapping paper - Dipper amusedly imagines Stan going to the nearest dollar store and grabbing the first thing off the rack - and open the flaps. There’s two pale yellow envelopes, one for each. They open them on their own and set them aside. A sticky note added on top of the parcels in the box like an afterthought reads, “Stan says that the only reason we got so much stuff is due to the valuable ruby amulets we managed to pawn off, but we both know he would put just as much into it anyway. - Ford” with a smiley face. “P.S. - fmgrv gsv xibhgzoh gl ivevzo nliv, Nzyvo.”

“Oh, that P.S. is for you.” Dipper hurriedly pulls out his portion of the gifts. “I can’t wait to see what Great Uncle Ford put in here this time! Maybe there’s a souvenir from that run-in they had with that deep sea squid monster.”

“That would be awesome!” Mabel says. Ae squints at the cipher scribbled at the bottom of the sticky note. With some thinking and sticking aer tongue out (which definitely helps with the thinking process), ae figures out the message. Excitement rising within aer, ae reaches down to the bottom of the box, past the small stack of wrapped presents addressed to aer. There, three crystals are tied together with fuzzy yarn. “This is what the note is talking about.” Ae lifts the bundled crystals out of the box.

Dipper looks over, temporarily abandoning the small jar holding the eyeball of a massive squid creature. “Neat, a crystal spell!”

“It says to untie it?” Mabel grabs the loose strings and pulls, undoing the knot and releasing the three crystals from their binds. The faint smell of magic wafts up to aer. Ae looks down at the box, where two folded clothing items suddenly materialize.

Their Grunkles had gotten Mabel _two_ binders. Two! And better yet…

Mabel ties the crystals back together tightly, and the binders become invisible to the human eye once more.

Disappearing binders! That will definitely come in handy. Aer parents might not take kindly to aer binding, after all.

“That is so _cool_ ,” Mabel breathes, unbinding the crystals so that ae can take a look at aer gifts again.

“Right? I wonder how the crystals help with the spell? Are they a tangible anchor to turn the invisibility on and off? Can you do the spell without them?” Dipper babbles.

“That’s cool too, but Dipper, look!” Mabel grabs one of the articles of clothing from the box. “It’s a binder, with _kittens_ on it!” Aer joy is immeasurable. “A kinder? A bitten? No, those are already words.” Ae shakes it with delight. “Kitten binder, Dipper!”

A laugh shakes Dipper’s shoulders. “Oh man, that’s great. Maybe I should get a binder from there too.”

Some sort of realization crosses Mabel’s face. Suddenly, ae grasps aer brother’s shoulders with disproportionate urgency. “Oh. My. Gosh. Matching kitten binders.”

With no way around it - Mabel’s grip is always stronger than his due to the sheer volume of energy contained in aer unassuming form at all times - Dipper sputters into laughter, knowing he’s already either going to have to buy himself a kitten binder or Mabel will get one for him. “Okay. Matching kitten binders it is.”

Mabel laughs too, and it’s such a relief from earlier that month, where Mabel was dejectedly moving uncooked macaroni noodles around in the gloom of aer room.

They both smile big, hearty smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> matching kitten binders, dipper!!!!


End file.
